Arcoarena

I appreciate that this is a little late on both counts and I’m sure most of you have seen these films but I’ve just rented them out so….

Well, Moulin Rouge. I heard it was meant to be good. If I was the bloke that produced all the sequences and effects I’d be quite proud of myself. As the writer or director I’d be a bit more uncertain. Can anyone tell me what, exactly, they were on when they wrote that script. Oh, and who thought that including Beatles lyrics in every other line of a film supposedly set in 1900s Paris was a good idea. I was so intrigued to find out what they were thinking that I listened to a bit of the directors commentary. At one point the director (who’s also the writer) talks about ‘entering into a contract’ and the suspension of disbelief (i.e. getting involved in the story). I stopped listening at that point, if he wanted me to get involved in the story he should have a) written a decent story rather than rehashing quite a common one and b) no turned the film into Spot-the-WetWetWet-song. Anyhow in summary, it’s a great film to watch – just don’t pay any attention to the words.

And finally – James Bond. It turns out I have seen all the Pierce Brosnan Bond films. Having spent around 10 minutes in Blockbuster attempting to work out which film was which I rented out Golden Eye.
The problem is that the blurb on the back of the boxes goes something along the lines of….

Bond tries to defeat evil Dr Something-or-others plan to hold the UN to ransom with big mega-death satalites in space

The problem with this being that the plot of every Bond film is the same – that’s half the point isn’t it? What they really want to do is what Friends do; something along the lines of this….

The one with Hale Berry, the invisible car and the Ice palace

(Die Another Day)

or

The one with all the Space shuttles, the nerve agent factory in vencie and the lines ‘See that some harm comes to him’

(Moonraker)

I’ve just joined the blockbuster near me and spent the past few evenings watching three films I’ve bee meaing to watch for sometime. So briefly….

Bowling for Columbine is quite an interesting documentary (about gun ownership in the states). It’s quite thought provoking but I finished watching it no wiser or more informed that I started. It isn’t that I don’t agree with what Michael Moore says, I just worry about how a film maker can edit footage and use statistics to their own advantage in an argument. I should probably be more sceptical about other reports and stats I hear everywhere else but it seems to me that the media are less trustworthy than most – I could (and probably am) wrong about this.

Enigma I’ve talked about the book earlier so I won’t say too much other than the book is very good – if you’ve got even a slight interest in cryptography or the Second World War; read it. The same cannot be said for the film. It’s well produced and looks nice but as every the book is much much better. Read the book then watch the film out of interest. Sadly in this case they’ve messed around with the story, especially the ending, and made it much worse (the silly bits are obviously Hollywood rather than Robert Harris in origin). That’s quite a long way of saying: read the book, it’s better.

Groundhog Day doesn’t have anywhere near enough Groundhog’s driving pickup trucks to match my expectations. It’s a lot less wacky than I expected but it’s quite a good film to watch. A bit soppy in places, but then again I’m not a big fan of ‘Rom/Com’ far to much Romance getting in the way of comedy for my liking. Enjoyable all the say, very funny in places. Bill Murray is very good in it, which reminds me, I must rent out ‘Lost In Translation’ that was meant to be good.

I had the misfortune of watching ‘Love Actually’ last night. Feel good films at it’s worst. It was possible the cheesiest film I have ever had to endure. Especially the kid in the airport shouting ‘Joanne’ through a sheet of glass. What were they thinking – that phrase also applying to the romance between the two stand-in ‘actors’ on the set of a pornographic film.

Atleast Andrea agreed with me – wouldn’t want to be going out with anyone that actually liked the damn film. They’d end up wetter than a weekend in Skegness

Apologies: I should possibly apologies to the makers of the film, anyone that liked it (who is probably so offended by now they’ve stopped reading) and the residents of Skegness